In his fourth season in the series, DAMS driver Jolyon Palmer won the championship title after a consistent season, with points-scoring finishes in 20 of the campaign's 22 races. He won four races – joint-most for the season, along with Stoffel Vandoorne and Felipe Nasr – and achieved twelve podium finishes, en route to the title, which he won in Russia.[2] The battle for the runner-up position in the championship standings was not decided until the final race of the season, between Vandoorne and Nasr.[3] It was ultimately settled in favour of Vandoorne, by five points, after a fifth-place finish compared to Nasr's second-place finish. Vandoorne, a rookie in the series after moving from Formula Renault 3.5, had started the season with a victory in his first start in Bahrain,[4] and also won at the Hungaroring, Monza,[5] and Abu Dhabi.[6] After two winless years in the series, Nasr took his first GP2 victory in his 50th start, in Barcelona.[7] He also achieved wins at the Red Bull Ring,[8]Silverstone,[9] and Spa-Francorchamps,[10] before his graduation to Formula One for the 2015 season.[11]

A trio of double race-winners filled positions four, five and six in the final drivers' championship standings. Mitch Evans – driving for defending teams' champions RT Russian Time – was another first-time winner in the series, taking back-to-back feature race victories at Silverstone and Hockenheim, the latter from 15th on the grid. Fifth place went to Johnny Cecotto Jr. for the Trident team, recording his best season in the series, which included victories in Barcelona and at the Red Bull Ring. Racing Engineering driver Stefano Coletti completed the championship top six, with sprint race victories at Hockenheim and Abu Dhabi. Four other drivers won on one occasion, and for each, was their first GP2 victory. Stéphane Richelmi won the sprint race, for DAMS, on home soil in Monaco, matching Coletti's feat from the previous season. Rookies Arthur Pic (Campos Racing) and Raffaele Marciello (Racing Engineering) won the feature races at the Hungaroring and Spa-Francorchamps respectively, while Marco Sørensen achieved the first victory for MP Motorsport, with sprint race success in Sochi.

DAMS were the winners of the teams' championship for the second time in three seasons – after a similar title sweep with Davide Valsecchi winning the drivers' championship in 2012 – finishing 57 points clear of closest competitors, Carlin. ART Grand Prix finished a further 37 points in arrears, completing the championship top trio.

The 2013 season was originally proposed to be the last season with the third-generation GP2 chassis, the Dallara GP2/11, which was introduced in 2011, but it was decided that the series would continue to use this chassis for a further three years in order to avoid a leap in costs to the competitors.[12] The series continued to use tyres provided by Pirelli.[13]

Free practice sessions were extended from 30 minutes to 45 minutes long.[14] Drivers were required to use both the harder "Prime" and softer "Option" tyre compounds during a Feature Race – unless declared a wet race – mirroring the rules of Formula One.[14] Previously, drivers had been free to use both compounds as they saw fit, provided both were used over the course of a race meeting.

Points were awarded to the top 10 classified finishers in the Feature race, and to the top 8 classified finishers in the Sprint race. The pole-sitter in the feature race also received four points, and two points were given to the driver who set the fastest lap inside the top ten in both the feature and sprint races. No extra points were awarded to the pole-sitter in the sprint race.

^Allen, Peter (3 November 2013). "Calado finishes GP2 season with victory". Paddock Scout. Retrieved 3 November 2013. His rival Sam Bird came through to fourth from ninth on the grid to give Russian Time the teams' title at their first attempt.